UCD Students Lead RTÉ Repeal Protest

Students are being invited to attend a demonstration today outside RTÉ studios in Donnybrook, protesting the coverage of the Strike for Repeal march last Wednesday. The event is being organised by a number of UCD students.

UCD Masters Student Eva Griffin, is involved in organising the protest. She explained that the purpose of the protest was due to “the blatant lack of sufficient reporting on RTÉ after the success of Strike 4 Repeal and March 4 Repeal. It was very far down as the billing and used as a segue into a different story after a lot of attention was given to the rise in price of stamps.”

“While it was great to see we made international headlines, we need better coverage at home to convince people that this is a worthy cause to get behind. I think it’s time we mobilise our frustration more frequently and get active about it. There’s nothing stopping us from bringing the story to them and it seems that this will be the only way to get their attention,” she continued.

The protest is to take place outside the main entrance of RTÉ, just off the Stillorgan Dual carriageway at 4.30pm. A group is also scheduled to meet outside UCD Students’ Union at 3.30pm, which will then walk down together. The event is being supported by UCDSU and has also been promoted by Colm O’Gorman, head of Amnesty International Ireland, and Anna Cosgrave of the Repeal Project.

UCD for Choice and TCD Strike 4 Repeal are also expected to attend.

Griffin commented that media coverage was very important to the Repeal movement: “It can be easy to sit and tweet about it, but that only goes so far. A lot of the time it feels like preaching to the converted. Mainstream media is how we get the message out to the undecided and get them informed and thinking about it, which is why we need to demand responsible reporting from RTÉ.”

Masters students Síofra Dempsey and Sadhbh Ní Bhroin are also involved in organising the protest. The official hashtag for the event is #RTE4Repeal and the facebook event page can be found here.